Newfoundland and Labrador reinstates aquaculture licences after mass salmon die-off in 2019

Newfoundland and Labrador has reinstated aquaculture licences at southern Newfoundland sites where 2.6 million salmon died in sea pens last year.

Fisheries Minister Gerry Byrne suspended licences at 10 sites owned by Northern Harvest Sea Farms in October after the company failed to disclose full and timely information about the mass mortality event.

The licences were reinstated after reviews by Memorial University’s Marine Institute and MAMKA, a marine management partnership between two Newfoundland Indigenous groups.

The Marine Institute concluded that unusual environmental conditions, including high water temperatures over several days and low oxygen, were responsible for the salmon deaths.

Images of the messy cleanup around the pens and slow public disclosure of information prompted environmental and regulatory concerns about aquaculture in the province.

The department says MOWI, which owns Northern Harvest Sea Farms, is preparing for future events by looking into deeper nets, developing contingency plans to improve response times and updating its waste and environment management plans, among other measures.

The provincial government has updated its aquaculture policy to compel companies to publicly disclose disease and abornomal mortality events in a timely manner.

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